Just how important is humor? Well, I bet you can’t get through a single day without at least encountering a small dose of it. YouTubers are making a living on it. Meme developers monopolize its powers. People of both sides of the political spectrum have furiously tried to relieve the growing stress of this year’s election by using humor as an emotional outlet. Health advocates tout the importance of laughter, and…you know it, I know it….everyone knows it….we are drawn to funny people.
I definitely encourage everyone to try an illustrated oratory/expository at least once in your competitive speech career because it’s different from a typical platform speech in a way that I think is particularly relevant to today’s visual culture. IO requires a speaker to capture ideas in easily absorbed images and simple, physical manipulations. These are presented on several 20 x 30 inch foam boards made visible with an easel. So, IO also requires a degree of choreography around the easel. In order to develop those visual aids and get in the extra practice on physical delivery, IO requires a totally different timeline to pull together for competition.
You picked your piece and really thought about why you wanted it. You’ve made a list of all the parts you want to keep. Perhaps you already know that you have too much to keep all of it. Now….what should you eliminate when you are cutting it?
Every work of literature is made up of five literary elements. You may have had an English teacher that made you study these ad nauseam! (I may have been that English teacher!) But these five mechanisms make any story work. They affect the reader or audience in specific ways. They are manipulated by the author to specific purpose. Understanding what they are and how they work helps you make a good cut for your interp.
Cutting your interp piece can be a DAUNTING task. There simply are not that many scripts out there designed for 10 minute presentations, so chances are, you are holding a book that you need to squeeze down into just 10 minutes. Where do you begin?
You are working on a hot topic. You have a killer idea for a speech this year. You want to try something outside-the-box in one of your interps. This is the kind of thinking I LOVE! I get excited when I have conversations along these lines with my students. But I always advise them to check the rules BEFORE they get too deep in the development.
By: Kristi Eskelund
STRATEGIES
There ARE things you can do at a tournament, before a round to help you have something to talk about in impromptu. The need is to have LOTS of bits and pieces brought forward to the front of your mind where they are ready for you to use them. Here are a few ways to do that:
By: Kristi Eskelund
STYLE
Less critical than structure or content is using a bit of your own style.
By: Kristi Eskelund
CONTENT
Content deals with the WHAT of your piece. What is it about and what exactly are you saying about it? Are you expressing an opinion of your own? Are you refuting or agreeing with someone else’s opinion? Are you answering a question?
By: Kristi Eskelund
When I was a student myself, I competed in a UIL event called Ready Writing. This essentially was an impromptu essay competition that required competitors to produce an essay on the spot after any given a prompt. It was judged on a number of factors including the articulateness of the response, the ability of the writer to allude to other sources, the use of stylistic devices, and of course, correct usage of grammar and spelling! Years, later, when the College Board added an essay component to the SAT exam, the parameters of that exam looked an awful lot like my old Ready Writing requirements, and at that time I began teaching workshops on how to write that essay for a maximum score. I realized in the process that most of my material actually crossed over into preparing for limited prep speeches as well! The main points I always hit on are developing your structure, content, and style and then getting a LOT of practice! After that, you can develop some real strategies.
By: Kristi Eskelund
Not going to lie….it’s HARD to do an original work these days. If you are working on an interpretation of a piece of literature, it’s hard to find a story that hasn’t been done or made into a movie or posted on YouTube. I know! Making your interpretation original will take significantly more work than copying one you’ve seen done, but the rewards will also be far more satisfying.
By: Kristi Eskelund
What if you can't find anything you like as much as last year's speech? My family has certainly been in this place! When you find that perfect piece, the one that is just “you” to a tee, or when you’ve had real success with a particular speech, it is legitimately TOUGH to move on and try to find another! Here are a couple of suggestions I’ve used in my family. (My kids will testify this is what I made them do….)
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